What now for KPFA?

Published 4:00 am, Monday, December 17, 2001

AFTER TWO YEARS of bitter legal wrangling, Pacifica Foundation, the parent company based in Washington, D.C., has settled four lawsuits brought by local affiliates against its board of directors. Under the terms of the settlement, a more representative board will govern for 15 months, during which it will revise Pacifica's bylaws and resolve a range of personnel and financial problems.

The relationship between Berkeley's KPFA-FM, a local affiliate, and the national board, became especially contentious after the national board fired the station's manager, several programmers and locked out staffers for 17 days in 1999. Pacifica eventually allowed staffers to return, but only if they increased the size and diversity of the station's audience.

Veronica Selver's historical documentary, "KPFA On The Air," hints at some of the problems, including a serious identity crisis, the liberal station now faces.

KPFA has an unusual history. In 1949, a group of pacifists and conscientious objectors founded a radio station in order to promote peace in the postwar era. Ever since, KPFA has been known as an independent station that championed the civil rights and anti-war movements in the 1950s and 1960s and introduced listeners to some of the most avant-garde and diverse literary and musical works.

With the increased popularity of National Public Radio, however, KPFA, which is wholly dependent on listeners for financial support, has had to compete with a listener-sponsored network that now accepts corporate underwriting.

Now that Pacifica's grassroots listeners have won back democratic participation on the national board, they face the formidable task of reinventing radio stations that will attract a new generation of listeners.